Jaded
by Bundibird
Summary: The boys are looking for Cheza again after Jagura ripped her from their grasp at Darcia's Keep. But when Toboe finds and rescues a wolf who then joins the Pack, Tsume, Hige and Kiba attempt to live with two Pups instead of one. ToboeOc. DISCONTINUED.


**Disclaimer****: I do not own Wolf's Rain. I only own whatever you do not recognise. Bones owns Wolf's Rain. Whoever 'Bones' is. Has anyone actually ever seen this guy? I mean… does he even exist? Do **_**I**_** even exist? Have any of you ever seen **_**me**_**? Spooky…**

**AN****: This just popped into my head today, like a random little butterfly. The butterfly – though at first seemingly harmless – soon turned into a vicious, nasty little bug that wouldn't let me rest until I had this typed up. **

**It's set after Jagura stole Cheza from Darcia's Keep, only, Kiba never got separated from the others. He chased after Jagura's ship, but the others caught up to him. They then set out for Jagura's city together. They haven't come across the Indians yet, and Kiba never entered that freaky fake Paradise with the freaky owl and the freaky lynx girl who all freaked me out.**

**Seriously. I was freaked out by that place from the start. I'm glad it wasn't Paradise. Shudders**

**Also, Blue and Cheza are together, as are Hubb and Cher. Quent went looking for blue, but when he couldn't find her, he followed the tracks in the snow left by our four favourite guys but DIDN'T get lost and nearly die in the snow.**

**AAAAAND! I know that the wolves technically don't have a human form and a wolf form so much as a wolf form and a human mirage, but it works better for me (and them!) if they have the two different forms. So don't flame me about that ok:D Cheers.**

**You must know however, that this story will not be my main focus. I will be focussing mainly on my two Harry Potter stories, **_**An Caillte Fien**_** and **_**Street Rules Apply**_

**In fact… I really have no clue where I'm going to be going with this story. I have chapter one planned out… and after that… well… there's sort of a biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiig black empty stretch of nothing. Reader input is MOST WELCOME. Reader input will be what keeps this story on its feet.**

**So yeah, now that you've been warned… on with the show!**

OoO

_**JADED**_

_**Meetings**_

OoO

She ran blindly, as fast as she could.

She was injured, but that barely slowed her down. She knew she would feel the injury later – and all the worse for the heavy strain she was currently putting on it – but that seemed like a better option than the alternative.

She span around a corner, nearly running into an elderly man. The man cried out in shock and fear, stumbling backwards. But she didn't even pause. She dodged lithely to the side, leaping onto a wooden box to avoid collision, and kept running.

She could hear the sounds of pursuit behind her. There were men on motorcycles as well as on foot, and they were gaining on her. Their cries and yells and the roars of their bikes were growing louder.

She was keeping as much as she could to the small, twisting side streets and back alleys. She knew that if she ended up on a main road – a straight road – she would be caught. You don't need to be close to someone to be able to fire at them. All they needed was a clear, straight shot.

A bullet hit the wall of the building next to her as she span wildly around another corner. If she had taken but another second to round the corner… she would have been hit instead of the wall.

She picked up her pace.

She span around yet another corner, and came face to face with a group of shabbily dressed people. They were standing around a fire in the middle of the road, just off the corner, and she had to swerve violently again to miss them, leaping to the side to land the top of a stack of boxes.

She wasn't as lucky as she had been with the old man. The wooden box had used to avoid colliding with the old man had been in relatively good condition, and had held her weight easily. This one was either badly rotted, or badly put together.

As soon as her full weight was on it, the box crumpled. She slipped sideways and fell heavily onto the next box down, which also splintered under her weight.

There was a loud crash as the pile of boxes overbalanced and hit the deck. She landed heavily on the ground, bits of splintered wood digging into her from underneath and more bits of boxes raining down on her.

She staggered to her feet, and kept running.

She yelped loudly as a bullet whizzed over her head, missing her by centimetres. Her little accident had lost her a lot of ground.

She didn't know where to go. She was lost. Sure – she lived in this city – but it was a big city, and she had never been to this part of it before.

She was finding breathing hard – her lungs were burning with the effort of her fast pace, and she was gasping and panting for air.

But she kept running anyway.

She ran on for about five minutes longer, turning down new streets multiple times and barely avoiding several bullets, when a something brown landed next her and started running alongside her, causing her to yelp again in shock and dart to the side down yet another side street.

The brown thing followed her, matching her pace easily, and she saw suddenly what it was.

"Y-you're a –" she managed to get out, gasping from both from shock and exertion.

"Can you jump?" the wolf asked as they ran, glancing at her injured leg.

"Yes," she answered, just managing to get the word through her laboured breathing.

"Follow me," the wolf said shortly, darting suddenly in front of her.

The wolf ran on for a moment longer, turning suddenly down a street that she would not have otherwise noticed, and jumped, soaring into the air and landing lightly on the top of the two story building.

She had no better ideas, so she followed him.

OoO

Kiba, Hige, Tsume and Toboe arrived in the city in the early afternoon, all of them (namely, Toboe and Hige) glad to finally be out of the desert and in a place where shelter and food would be readily available.

I mean… moonlight and everything was fine enough, but nothing beats a good steak.

They spent nearly an hour scouting for a good place to spend the night, and eventually came upon an abandoned building, well away from the city centre.

Tsume and Kiba checked it out, making sure that it was really abandoned, before declaring that all was safe.

"Great!" Hige stated when the 'all clear' message came back. "Now can we _please_ go and get some food?"

Tsume rolled his eyes in disdain. That bloody wolf was always hungry.

"Good idea," Kiba said in response to Hige. "We'll split up. We'll be more likely to find enough then."

"Hey Runt, will you be alright by yourself?" Hige asked, bouncing on the balls of his feet excitedly. He was so hungry he felt he was about to pass out, and he couldn't wait to get started. But he just wanted to make sure that the Pup wouldn't get into trouble if left on his own.

"I'm not a Runt!" Toboe protested hotly, frowning sulkily at Hige. But he didn't really mind that much – he was merely protesting out of habit. He knew Hige and Tsume used the term 'Runt' as a nickname out of fondness for him.

Hige used it because he just liked to tease; to ruffle the waters a bit. Tsume used it because it sounded tough and uncaring, but they all knew better.

Toboe jutted his chin out, trying to look tough. "And I'll be fine by myself. I don't need you guys to puppy sit me all the time."

Hige shrugged. It was fine by him if the kid was on his own. I'd be good for Toboe to practise looking after himself anyway. And what could go wrong? They weren't going to be too far away from each other after all.

"If anything happens," Tsume said, scanning the city around them darkly, as if expecting it to suddenly rise up like a wave and engulf them, "we meet back here. If there's any sort of commotion – even if it turns out to be just a drunken human getting arrested. It's better to be safe than sorry."

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever," Hige said, shifting into his wolf form, already turning and heading off. "See you back here at sun down!"

He disappeared around the corner, and Kiba too headed off to find some food.

"See you at sun set then," Tsume said to Toboe, before turning and heading off in the opposite direction to Hige and Kiba.

Toboe looked around at the city briefly, before picking a direction that none of the others had gone, and setting out to get himself fed.

OoO

He had been scrounging around the streets for a couple of hours, getting further and further away from the abandoned building that was their meeting place, and had found a few decent scraps of food in various places, before Toboe became aware of loud shouting and the rumble of fast moving vehicles.

He didn't think much of this, judging it to be some humans having one of their races on their big, ride-on machines, until he heard several gunshots and a loud, panicked yelp.

His head snapped up and he looked towards the sound of the commotion, guessing how close to him it was.

He knew it wasn't one of his pack – he would recognise their voices anywhere, and this one was completely unfamiliar to him – but he also knew it wasn't just any old dog.

Toboe completely forgot about the deal to head back to their hideout if there was any sort of problem, not even thinking before he turned on the spot, jumped onto the roof of the nearest building and ran as fast as he could towards the sounds.

He ran for several minutes, jumping from roof top to roof top, not taking long to find the humans – most of whom were on motorcycles. In nearly the same instant he caught sight of the humans, he also caught sight of their quarry.

She was a strange looking wolf – an unusual creamy, light, light tan colour. Her body was not heavily built like Kiba, Tsume and Hige's bodies were, but was rather slight – like his own – with slim legs and a thinner than normal muzzle. Around her neck she had a green bandanna tied.

She was running as fast as she could, darting at random down side-streets, trying to never let the humans have a clear shot of her.

She was also injured – Toboe could tell that easily. She was favouring her back left leg, and even from a distance he could see the dark coloured blood staining her light fur.

Another thing that was clear to Toboe was that this she-wolf had no idea where she was going. He had scouted around the area she was heading into earlier as he'd looked for food, and nearly all of the streets ended in dead ends. Those that didn't end in high brick walls, looped back on themselves to open up again exactly where they started.

Again, not even pausing to think about the possible consequences or effects of his actions, Toboe sped up so that he was running parallel to the light wolf, and leapt from the roof top to land, still running, next to her.

She yelped, surprised and frightened by his sudden appearance, and darted left down the next street away from Toboe, who followed.

She looked sideways, fear in her eyes, and Toboe saw her eyes widen in surprise. "Y-you're a –" she panted through gasping breaths.

"Can you jump?" he asked, getting straight to the point.

"Yes," she managed to answer.

"Follow me." They needed to get out of this area fast. If the humans knew the area at all, they would know that it was pretty much one big dead end, and they would no doubt begin blocking off the exits and closing in on them.

Toboe rounded the next corner and jumped, soaring easily into the air and setting down again on the roof of a two storied building.

He looked behind him, looking for the she-wolf, and after a moment she appeared. "Come on," he said quickly, and set off again, running over the roof tops and going back the way they had come.

OoO

"We'll pause a bit here," Toboe panted. "Catch our breath."

The two wolves had been running flat out for a while now and they were only a few blocks from where Hige, Tsume and Kiba should be waiting.

They were both pretty tired out, but fortunately, it looked like they'd lost the humans.

"Here," Toboe said, shifting into his human form and walking towards the she-wolf. "Let me see your leg." His human form came in very handy at times like these. He always found it easier to treat wounds when he had hands instead of paws.

The she-wolf sat up – still in her wolf form – and let Toboe inspect her injury. It was on the upper leg, and there was a lot of blood surrounding it – matted into her fur.

"Hmm…" Toboe said, looking around. "I'll need to clean this up a bit before I can treat it. Wait here a second."

The she wolf said nothing, so Toboe stood and, after listening intently through the window of one of the houses lining the street they were in to make sure there were no humans inside, he jumped easily through the window.

The she-wolf sat where he's left her, her eyes closed tightly. All the emotions were coming back to her now. They had all been pushed to the back of her mind to deal with later whilst she had been fleeing from the humans, but now – with nothing to distract her – they were all creeping back out of the dark little corner they had been briefly stored in.

The pain in her leg was finally hitting her too. It had been kept at bay by pure adrenalin whilst she had been running for her life. But now there was no need for the adrenalin to be pumping through her body.

"Are you ok?" a voice asked her.

She opened her eyes in surprise to see Toboe standing there – a bottle of water, a white tube and some rags in his hands, and a highly concerned expression on his face.

Clearly her pain was showing through to her face.

She closed her eyes again. "Hurts…" she said through gritted teeth.

"Oh! I'm so sorry! I took too long! Here – I got some water from the human's house to clean the blood away and some clothes to wrap your leg up in, as well as some cream that I know helps heal cuts and stuff."

He got to work immediately. He poured water on the fur surrounding the wound, and used one of the shirts he had pilfered from the house to clean the blood away once it was damp enough to be removed without pulling at the she-wolf's fur.

Fortunately, when he was finally able to push the creamy-tan fur out of the way and take a good look at the wound, it looked like it the major flow of blood had stopped.

It was a pretty nasty gash though. It was a straight cut – about eight centimetres long and at least a couple deep.

"Do you know what happened?" Toboe asked, inspecting the wound closer as he washed out the bits of gravel and dirt stuck in there, and trying to ignore the she-wolf's occasional gasps of pain.

"I – I think it was a bullet. I think it just missed me, but caught my leg as I went out the door."

Toboe nodded to himself. That's what it looked like had happened. She was incredibly lucky that this was all she had received from the bullet.

"This might sting a little bit – but it's meant to get rid of any germs and stuff," he said warningly, before squeezing some of the cream from the white tube onto her wound.

A low whine of pain came from the she-wolf, and Toboe whined an apology as he spread the cream around. "I know it hurts," he said, "but an infection would hurt worse, I bet."

Finished with the cream, Toboe reached behind him and grabbed the second shirt, ripping into strips of fabric to use as a bandage. "I tried to get a shirt the same colour as your scarf," he said, trying to cheer her up, "but they only had this weird swampy green. I don't think it goes well with your scarf at all." Toboe paused. "Actually… I'm not sure that this colour would go well with _any_ colour. It doesn't even go well with itself." He held up the strips of fabric for her inspection.

She glanced at them, grinning a little. "Yeah, I agree," she said. "There weren't any other colours?" she asked, mock serious.

"Well… there was this multi-fluro-coloured lycra shirt… but I reckoned that even swampy green looks better than multi-fluro."

She grimaced. "Yeah," she said shortly, before sighing a long suffering sigh. "Well I suppose I'll have to suffer through being a model for a walking fashion nightmare til my leg gets better." She grinned cheekily at Toboe, who grinned back and started wrapping her injury up tightly.

A few minutes later he was done.

"There," he said, sitting back on his heels and admiring his handiwork. "Does that feel better?"

She looked up at him, smiled, and nodded, before shifting into her human form.

Toboe realised then that she was pretty much the same age he was, as dusted the dirt off her clothes.

He had been too busy beforehand – what with running madly away from the humans and then being so focussed on fixing her leg – that he hadn't noticed her age.

She had shoulder length light blonde hair – pretty much the same colour as her fur – that was plaited in two thin plaits on either side of her head, and she wore a black train driver's style cap on her head that shaded her bright green eyes. The green scarf – the same colour as her eyes – that she wore as a wolf she also wore in human form – tied loosely around her neck. She was wearing a dark green tank top and a pair of dark, bootleg jeans that disappeared inside the tops of calf high black boots. Toboe's bandage was now sitting on the outside of her jeans, still wrapped tightly around her mid thigh.

She was quite pretty, Toboe realised.

"Thanks for helping me out back there," she said with an awkward smile, gesturing back the way they had come from. "I could barely think while they were chasing me, and I don't know this area at all."

"That's alright," Toboe said, smiling happily. "I was glad to help out. Why were they after you though?"

The girl's face dropped suddenly, and she looked away from Toboe, looking at the ground instead. Toboe noticed that her shoulders slumped sadly.

"Um…" she said in a voice that sounded close to tears, "Because, ah…" She sniffed.

"Hey," Toboe said concernedly, moving around so that he was standing in front of the girl. He crouched down to her level and put a hand on her shoulder. Her eyes were brimming with forcefully held back tears. "What's wrong?"

"I didn't do it!" she sobbed, burying her face in her hands as the tears spilled from her eyes. "I just came in and she was already dead! It wasn't me! I tried to get her to wake up, but she wouldn't!"

Toboe made a comforting noise as he reached forward and pulled the girl closer to him. He always felt better when someone hugged him. It helped to remind him that he wasn't the only living creature still on earth – that there was still someone there he could depend on.

The girl sobbed harder and clutched at his shirt.

"Who was it?" Toboe asked gently.

"J-Jenna," the girl replied through her sobs. "M-my human. I – I don't know what happened to her! I came into the house and she was just lying there! When she didn't wake up I called for help. Then the people came in and thought I'd killed her! I didn't! I swear!"

"Its ok," Toboe said quietly, memories of his own human coming back to him as he hugged the girl tighter to him. "I believe you."

There was no response from the girl. She just kept sobbing. It looked like everything had just sunk in to her mind; the death of her human, the blame being placed on her, and the terrifying flight from the humans.

"I had a human too," Toboe said after a while, when the girl's sobs had calmed slightly.

She pulled back from him now, looking at the ground and rubbing at her eyes with the backs of her hands. "Really?" she sniffed quietly. "What happened?"

Toboe looked away at the setting sun. "She was old," he replied sadly. "She died. The humans blamed me too, the same as they blamed you."

The girl sniffed again. "I'm sorry."

Toboe gave a half smile. "It's not your fault. I'm Toboe by the way."

The girl returned his half smile. "I'm Jade," she replied.

There was a pause, before Toboe asked, trying to distract her from her thoughts, "So… what are you planning on doing now?"

Jade shrugged sadly. "I don't know. I mean… I don't have anywhere to go back to… now… now that… now that Jenna's gone. And I lived with her for as long as I can remember, I don't know anywhere else I _can_ go."

"Toboe!"

Both of the young wolves jumped in surprise as Tsume's voice shot out like a whip. Toboe lowered his head guiltily as Tsume stormed furiously up to him.

"Where the _hell_ have you been?" he spat, eyes glinting angrily as he grabbed Toboe by the scruff of the neck, ignoring the yelp of fear and pain as he hauled the Pup to his feet. Tsume hadn't even noticed Jade crouching nervously against the wall. "Do you have _any_ idea how worried we were!? Why didn't you come back to the meeting point!? We thought the humans had gotten you!"

"Tsume… I-I-"

"We thought you'd been caught!" Tsume raged. "How do you think that made us feel, huh? Kiba's furious!"

"I'm sorry Tsume! I –"

Toboe was cut off as Tsume howled, letting Hige and Kiba know that Toboe had been located.

"We told you to stay near the meeting place and to go back there if there was any sort of commotion!" Tsume continued. "Why didn't you? We can't afford to go looking for you in every city we pass!"

"I –"

"Toboe!" Hige cried out in relief as he rounded the far corner, running up and quickly checking Toboe over for any sort of injury. "Bloody hell Toboe, we were so worried! Are you ok? What happened? Why didn't you come back to the meeting place? _Is that blood!?_"

"No – I mean – yes. But it's not mine, its –"

"Don't coddle the Runt, he's in big trouble," Tsume growled angrily as Kiba appeared, jumping down from the roof above them.

Toboe lowered his head further at the furious glare Kiba gave him.

"What happened Toboe?" he asked angrily.

"I… I'm sorry," Toboe mumbled submissively. "I didn't mean to not come back! I got distracted. I forgot we were meant to meet up at the old building."

"How could you forget that Toboe?" Kiba growled. "It's not like it was hard to remember. If there's any sort of commotion, _come right back to the meeting place._ We thought you'd been killed or something! Were you _trying_ to scare us?"

"No!" Toboe cried quickly. "I was looking for food, and I heard the humans and their machines and everything, but I thought they were just racing like they do sometimes. Then I heard them shooting, and I heard someone yelping. I knew it wasn't any of you guys, but I ran to see anyway, to see if I could help. And… yeah. We got out of there alright, and we lost the humans… but I just forgot about coming back to meet you. I didn't think –"

"No, you didn't 'think' did you," Tsume growled.

"Well… no actually… I didn't," Toboe admitted.

"Who's 'we'?" Hige asked curiously.

"Me and Jade," Toboe said, turning around and gesturing to Jade, who had remained unnoticed the whole time, and now stepped forward cautiously.

Suddenly, Hige laughed. "Ooh, now I see why you forgot about meeting up with _us_!"

Toboe and Jade looked briefly at each other blankly.

"Kiba?" Toboe asked cautiously as the dark haired teen studied Jade coolly. "Would… would it be ok if Jade came with us?"

Jade, Tsume, Kiba and Hige looked at Toboe in surprise.

"Well," he said, "it's just that… she has nowhere to go now. And we could always use some extra help."

"Some extra liabilities you mean," Tsume said harshly. "She's a pup, just like you, and look how much trouble you manage to get yourself into every day."

"Exactly!" Toboe agreed, surprising everyone again. "I get into trouble even though I have you three looking out for me! So how much more trouble would she get in, with no one to look out for her?"

Kiba looked at Tsume and Hige questioningly. The Pup had a point. But was this girl really their responsibility?

"Why should we care what happens to her? She's not part of our pack," Tsume said coldly.

Toboe straightened up angrily. "We'll neither were you at the start! You didn't even want to come with us! It's only because I convinced Kiba and Hige to let you join that you did! And if you hadn't, the humans would have gotten you! Why should Jade not be given the same chance you were given? She doesn't have a pack at all, same as you didn't! And I won't leave her here to fend for herself!"

Tsume raised his eyebrows at Toboe's outburst, but said nothing.

"Do you want to come with us Jade?" Toboe asked as the thought occurred to him that he may be putting his case forward for no reason at all.

Jade hesitated. "Where are you going?" she asked.

"To Paradise," Kiba said simply.

"Paradise?" Jade asked, her eyes lighting up. "Does it really exist then? My mum always told me it was just a fairy tale."

"Nope!" Toboe said happily. "It exists! And Kiba's taking us there! We have to find Cheza first though."

"Cheza?"

"The Flower Maiden. She's the one who'll lead us into Paradise."

"The Flower Maiden!? She exists too? Have you seen her?"

"Uh huh! We had her with us for a while, but one of the Nobles stole her. She's soooo nice! And she smells great too! We're trying to get her back. We tracked her down at this guy Darcia's place, but then Jagura's soldiers came in and took her away again. So we're heading to Jagura's city now instead."

"You mean Paradise… and the Flower Maiden… they actually, really exist?"

"Sure do! So, do you want to come with us?"

Jade beamed. "For sure!"

Kiba, Tsume and Hige stood and watched the two pups bounce excitably off each other. Kiba looked at them questioningly again.

Hige shrugged. "Fine by me," he said. "Besides, it'll probably be good for the Runt to have someone his own age around. And really, two of them can't be that much more difficult to look after than one."

Kiba looked at Tsume. He shrugged, nodding his head once. "Whatever. So long as she doesn't cause any trouble."

"Huh?" Toboe asked, hearing the last part of what Tsume said. "You mean she can come?"

Kiba nodded.

"Aw, awesome!" Toboe cried, bouncing up and down in excitement. "Come on Jade, I'll show you where we're staying tonight."

Tsume looked flatly at Hige as Toboe grabbed Jade's hand and raced off to show her around, both of them chatting loudly and excitably, Jade limping slightly as she tried to avoid putting too much pressure on her leg. "Are you _sure_ two of them won't be harder to look after than one?" he asked sceptically.

OoO

The next morning as the sun rose, it shone through a window, lighting up a room that appeared to have a lumpy rug of different kinds of fur lying in the middle of the floor.

The rug looked to be made up of two types of brown, pale tan, grey and white. And if one looked closely, one might think that the rug was moving slightly. Almost is if it were breathing.

It became apparent however, when one of the patches of fur stood up, disentangled itself from the rest of the pile, and stretched, that it was not actually a lumpy rug, so much as five different wolves, all lying together and sleeping peacefully.

Hige stood up and disentangled himself from the wolves that were surrounding him, yawning widely as he stretched.

He stepped out of the cluster of furry bodies and meandered over to his own patch of sunlight, blinking slowly as his eyes adjusted and sleepily scratching his ear as he woke up.

He looked back at the rest of his pack and smiled sleepily. Tsume and Kiba were starting to stir, but Jade and Toboe still looked to be entirely out of it.

Hige wasn't surprised. The night before, Toboe, excited because there was a new member in the pack, and Jade, excited about _being_ the new member in the pack, had run around non stop – chattering incessantly, exploring the general area and rough and tumbling with each other and the rest of them, much to Tsume's annoyance.

Jade had paused momentarily each time Tsume yelled at the two of them to pipe down, but Toboe barely batted an eyelid, and quickly roused Jade into hyperactive mode again.

Then, just as Tsume had been nearing the end of his tether for the fifth time that night, both of them seemingly simultaneously just ran out of energy, flopped down together in the middle of the room, and were fast asleep within seconds.

Tsume had sighed in relief, and Hige had laughed, saying, "Just watching the two of them tired me out!"

"I think you were right Hige," Kiba had said in his usual quiet manner. "Having another pup around cheered Toboe up heaps."

It was true, Hige thought as he sat in the sun, warming up. Once it had been announced Jade would be able to come with them, Toboe had brightened up so much it hurt.

_It actually did hurt_, Hige thought sourly, as he inspected a nicely sized bruise on his side, courtesy of Toboe, who had thought the night before that it would be amusing to scare the living day-lights out of Hige by pouncing on him.

Still, Hige was glad the Pup had brightened up. He'd seemed really down in the dumps since they'd lost Cheza again. He was losing the hope that they might make it to Paradise.

Pups always did have short attention spans.

But now that Toboe had Jade, he was regaining his interest. Her enthusiasm and interest in Paradise had boosted Toboe's sinking levels; had rekindled his hope.

And Hige, Kiba and Tsume were all really pleased by this. No matter how much they pretended not to care for Toboe, they were all really quite fond of him. If he left the pack, got lost or, heaven forbid, died, the pack would fall apart. Toboe was what held them all together.

_Toboe may be the omega_, Hige thought, poking and prodding his bruise to see the extent of the damage, _but he doesn't realise how important he is to the pack_.

Hige looked up from his bruise as he heard movements. Kiba was sitting up slowly, looking around himself and blinking blearily.

"Mornin' sleepy head!" Hige said cheerfully.

Kiba yawned in response.

"Hey Kiba," Hige started, "I reckon a couple of us should go out into the centre of the city and see what we can find to eat, and then bring it back here. I don't think any of us got much to eat yesterday – what with the humans and then looking for Toboe and everything, and I reckon Jade'll probably be hungry too. Only, what with the humans probably on the lookout for her and the fact that she can't run to well cause of her leg, she'd be better to stay here, and Toboe too. So we should bring as much food as we can back here. What do you say?"

"Good idea," Kiba said, getting up and stretching, then walking over to join Hige. "But someone should stay with them. I don't trust them not to get into trouble if they're left on their own."

"Totally buzz not me!" Hige replied strongly. "Check out this bruise! I _so_ don't want to be their only play mate."

"And I'd like to check out the city. See if we can pick up any information that will help us find Cheza."

"Yeah right," Hige laughed. "You just don't want to be stuck with Toboe and Jade! Nice cover though. Tsume will be thrilled, I bet."

"About what?" Tsume asked suspiciously as he stood up, shaking some dead leaves out of his fur and stretching.

"About puppy-sitting," Hige replied without hesitation, gesturing with his paw to Toboe and Jade, both of whom were still asleep. They were going to be full of energy when they woke up.

Tsume levelled a glare at Hige. "What are you talking about?" he asked, his suspicions rising.

"Kiba and I are going out hunting, and we've delegated you the task of making sure those two don't get into trouble." There was no mistaking the glee in Hige's voice.

Tsume gaped at him for a moment, before turning to Kiba. "He's kidding, yeah?"

Kiba turned away from the window he was looking at the city through to glance at Tsume. "No. You're looking after them while we're away. We'll bring you all back some food."

"What!?" Tsume looked horrified. "No, Kiba, wait. Why can't Hige look after them? He's better with them than I am. I lose my temper with them both really quickly!"

Hige snickered, but Kiba shook his head. "No. Hige has the best nose out of all of us, and he'll need it to find enough food for everyone. You've got the best hearing, so you'll be able to tell if anyone's heading this way, and you'll be able to get out of here in plenty of time."

"What's happening?" a sleepy voice asked. Tsume, Hige and Kiba turned to look at Toboe, who was starting to get up. He yawned and shook his fur out in much the same fashion that Tsume had done moments before, before sitting down again next to Jade (who was lifting her head to look blearily around) and cocking his head curiously at them.

"Tsume's going to be looking after you and Jade while Kiba and I go out hunting," Hige said, again without hesitation, grinning evilly as Tsume growled warningly at him.

Toboe's ears perked up and his eyes shined. "Oh, cool! Tsume, you can teach me and Jade how to sneak up on someone! You're really good at that!"

Tsume groaned.

OoO

It was after sunset – night had well and truly fallen – and Kiba and Hige were just arriving back at the abandoned building, barely visible in the dark, their arms laden with heavy bags of stolen food.

Well… they were heading back to the _nearly_ abandoned building.

Even from where they were, a whole block away, they could hear the shouts, giggles and bangs from the second floor, belonging, they both knew, to two highly excitable pups.

"I bet Tsume will be glad to see us," Hige chirped, his eyes shining gleefully. "I wonder if he'll be able to walk over to the food, or if we'll have to bring it to his bruised and battered body?"

Kiba smiled quietly. "I'm sure he's fine."

At that moment, from the building they were heading towards, Kiba and Hige heard an extremely loud crash, followed by a roar of rage and hysterical giggling.

The two food laden wolves barely had time to exchange a mystified (or rather, in Hige's case, gleeful) glance before a black figure leapt out of the window, falling gracefully through the air to land lightly on the ground.

"Oi!" Hige called, a grin on his face. "What are you doing abandoning your post?"

"I've had it with those two!" Tsume yelled back, furious, as he stalked towards Kiba and Hige, still only a dark figure against the dark night. "I heard you coming, and I tell you now – my shift is FINISHED!"

Hige laughed. "Aw, come on! Surely they weren't that bad!"

Tsume didn't answer, but suddenly, he was close enough for them to see him clearly.

Hige gaped for a moment, and then started laughing so hard he had to hold on to Kiba's shoulder to keep him upright.

Even Kiba's lower lip was wobbling traitorously as he struggled not to laugh.

Tsume's hair – normally so sleek and neat – was ruffled looking and sticking out in odd places. He had leaves stuck to his clothes, and a twig poking out of his right shoulder where it was stuck in through the rip in his jacket.

In addition to a number of smaller scratches and bruises, Tsume was also sporting a brilliant black eye.

He looked distinctly worse for the wear.

"Y…you! Y-y-you…!" Hige was laughing so much he couldn't even form a complete sentence. "You…!" He let go of Kiba's shoulder and flopped down onto the ground, holding his stomach and howling with laughter.

Kiba brought a hand up to his mouth to attempt to hide his smile.

Tsume glowered at them both.

Kiba coughed, trying to regain his composure. "Why didn't you… hehe… I mean – ehem… Ah… why didn't you get them to do something productive? Like teach them how to sneak up on prey and stuff? You know… hunting practice. That should have kept them occupied for a while, and would have been helpful in the long run for all of us."

Hige giggled a few more times before he managed to get himself under control, and he waited for Tsume to reply to Kiba.

"Did you hear that loud crash just before I came down here?" Tsume asked, a growl clearly audible.

Kiba's mouth twitched again. "Yes."

"Well that was the result of my teaching them how to surprise prey. They're quite good at it. They both got the hang of it before the afternoon. Jade's injury has healed already quite a lot. And I have been their 'prey' ever since."

Hige collapsed in renewed fits of hysterical laughter, and after a moment of attempting to school his features, Kiba too started laughing, so much so that he staggered sideways and used the wall as a support.

It was then Tsume realised they'd been leading him on. They'd known exactly what had happened.

Tsume growled once, then turned away from the two hysterical wolves and started walking further down the street.

"Where are you going?" Kiba managed to ask through his laughs.

"Hunting," came the spat response.

"But we've already got – " Hige started, only to stop when Tsume leapt up onto one of the nearby roofs and disappeared. "Oh well," Hige said, standing up, collecting the food bags and still laughing every so often to himself. "More for us then!"

OoO

It had been several hours since Tsume had left, and since then all the food had been eaten, Hige had fallen prey (literally) to Jade and Toboe's new hunting skills twice, Kiba had also received a black eye, and the two pups were finally asleep.

"Far out!" Hige whispered, determined not to wake Jade and Toboe. "If every day's like this – I don't think we're gonna make it to Paradise. They'll kill us WAY beforehand! I'm sort of sorry we left Tsume here on his own now! The poor guy must have had strips torn off him!"

Kiba smiled quietly as he looked up at the two sleeping pups. "I wouldn't worry about that. They'll calm down. They're just excited about a change. I say they'll be heaps calmer in a couple of days, tops."

"Yeah, well… let's hope we can last a couple of days."

Even before he'd finished saying that, Tsume appeared, climbing quietly through the window.

Hige opened his mouth to call a greeting, but was cut short by the urgent expression on Tsume's face, and the finger pressed firmly to his lips. Hige and Kiba were immediately on alert.

"What is it?" Kiba whispered, striding quickly over to Tsume.

Tsume gestured again for quiet, leaning out the window and listening. There was a distant sound of barking and baying.

"Hounds," Tsume whispered back. "About twenty of them – with at least double that amount of humans. They're downwind," he added in response to Hige, who had started sniffing the air.

"What do they have to do with us?" Hige asked.

"Yesterday. They were chasing Jade. They think she killed her human. When they were chasing her, they saw Toboe. Then they saw both of you in the city today. They think they're being invaded by wolves. They're after us."

OoO

**An: There. Dude, that was so much longer than I was anticipating. Just on 18 pages. And here was I thinking it was going to be a short chapter. Shakes head at own foolishness**

**Anyway. I really enjoyed writing that:D I think Tsume may have been a little OoC, but we never saw him frustrated beyond belief in the anime, so I sort of made it up. **

**Anyway, as I was typing this chapter, I had a bunch of ideas for stuff that I could put into the story at a later date, and I sort of worked out a rough timeline. So, who knows? This story might actually end up going somewhere!**

**Anyway – review and let me know what you think! Cause this story aint goin nowhere if you don't let me know that you're reading it. K?**

**:D Cheers.**

**Love Bundi**


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